Foxconn Partners With Saudi Wealth Fund to Build Electric Cars – Bloomberg — www.bloomberg.com
– The pair will set up a joint venture called Ceer that will license component technology from Germany’s BMW AG and design and build vehicles including sedans and sport utility vehicles in Saudi Arabia for buyers in the region.
– The Ceer venture will bring in over $150 million of foreign direct investment and create as many as 30,000 jobs, according to the statement. It’s projected to contribute $8 billion to Saudi Arabia’s gross domestic product by 2034.
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Abu Dhabi Sheikh Tahnoon’s Firm Takes to Private Credit With $2 Billion Warchest – Bloomberg — www.bloomberg.com
– Chimera Capital, part of a business empire overseen by Sheikh Tahnoon Bin Zayed, has raised $2 billion for the first close of a fund and plans to deploy loans to private companies.
– The firms plan to make investments globally through an open-ended fund structure
– The partnership’s focus has so far landed predominantly in the fintech, artificial intelligence and life-sciences sectors, with a big focus on the Indian market.
– Investors globally continue to be drawn to a market that provides senior-secured loans, which can generate double-digit yields in the US.
– The loans will be senior-secured, meaning the lender is the first to be paid out in the event of a bankruptcy.
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Largest Mideast Broadcaster Said to Tap HSBC, JPMorgan for IPO – Bloomberg — www.bloomberg.com
– The Saudi government owns a 60% stake in MBC and the rest is held by founder and chairman Waleed Al-Ibrahim, one of the kingdom’s richest businessmen.
– MBC was founded in London in 1991. It moved its headquarters to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates in 2002, and then to Saudi Arabia’s capital Riyadh. The first privately-owned pan-Arab satellite TV channel, it now includes 20 TV channels and video-streaming service Shahid VIP.
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Iran’s Deadly Protests Unite a Nation Behind the Struggles of Women and Kurds – Bloomberg — www.bloomberg.com
– Kurds, the 10 million or so minority has found itself at the center of one of the biggest anti-government uprisings in Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution following the death in police custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian woman.
– The struggles of the Kurds along with women that have now galvanized dissent across ethnic and social lines. That sets the current demonstrations apart from previous protests and poses a more complicated challenge to the regime and its security apparatus.
– The Kurds are one of the biggest stateless nationalities or ethnic groups in the world. Numbering up to 45 million, they played a critical role in defeating Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, where they have secured some autonomy. In Turkey, they have been increasing their political influence while the government continues a decades-long campaign against Kurdish militants.
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Egypt’s Bondholders Show Skepticism Post-IMF in Lesson for EM – Bloomberg — www.bloomberg.com
– investors are demanding evidence the nations are taking the tough steps necessary to bridge funding gaps and reduce debt.
– Gordon Bowers of Columbia Threadneedle Investments said that “The IMF involvement is a nice policy anchor but does not by itself fix any of the external funding issues as program success is very much contingent on execution of the privatization and foreign-direct-investment agenda, of which investors remain skeptical given previous disappointments.”
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Saudi LIV Boss Accused by PGA of Stonewalling in Lawsuit – Bloomberg — www.bloomberg.com
– Al-Rumayyan, an avid golfer who is governor of the Saudi kingdom’s Public Investment Fund,” founded LIV Golf in 2021 to compete with the long-established PGA Tour
– The upstart tour poached several of golf’s top stars, including Greg Norman, Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson, with the promise of huge paychecks. The PGA responded by barring those players from its tournaments.
– The players swung back with a lawsuit.
– As part of a countersuit, the PGA is seeking the testimony of Al-Rumayyan and documents from the Saudi sovereign wealth fund.
– Al-Rumayyan and the investment fund “have flatly objected to the Tour’s subpoenas, refused to produce a single responsive document and declined to appear for deposition.
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